There's an article today at abc.com that looks at recent trends around net-based pay-for services and the smattering of paywalls from News Corp to the NYT that are up or threatening to be put up, and speculating that this could be the beginning of a trend. Of course, a YouTube video rental site and a few large publishers putting up paywalls will make zero difference to the "free internet" on their own. But if they're successful, it could spark emulation. But could this be a trend that could snowball enough to change the nature of the net?

The web might remain free. However, the app- or cloud-based internet follows different rules and is growing. Users are used to buying apps and apps are easier to handle. Content providers like the app model because they are easier to control, make a better advertising platform, and harder to pirate the content. Clearly newspaper publishers see it as the way to get their groove back.

That is the trend to look out for. The cloud already has a foothold on the PC. It is too compelling for users and providers alike. If it takes over, the app internet could become the "legitimate internet" leaving the web to become a seedy red-light district.

Besides, the natural progression is that things that are free eventually become things that must be bought.

News companies have been screwing themselves out of customers for decades, now. The internet just made it easier for those people who didn't have other ways to get news without paying them for pieces of paper with copied content. Pay walls won't work because they aren't offering anything worth paying for. It's really less about any of the other issues that try to get tangled in with it, than it is that paying extra for the same copied content being sent out everywhere, with no depth in the research/reporting, is not worth it.

However, being primarily bean-counters, the head honchos are blind to that. Offer value, make ads 1st-party only, and then let's see what happens.

The thing is once internet content becomes nothing but binaries there will be nothing legitimate for Google to scrape and the equation will change. Unless you are satisfied with "citizen journalists." Personally, they disgust me.

This new era of computing is a complete reaction to the previous 4 decades. Tech and content producers for all stripes feel like they left a lot of money on the table. They are determined to correct the mistake.

Offer value, make ads 1st-party only, and then let's see what happens.